


Sociopaths and Animators and Zombies (oh my!)

by Andromedanewton



Series: Anita and Edward (my canon divergence) [13]
Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:20:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7762948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromedanewton/pseuds/Andromedanewton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Van Cleef has been tracked down and it's time to put Edward's plan into action.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sociopaths and Animators and Zombies (oh my!)

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise! Wow this is early! So I have had a bad night, plagued with pain and nightmares, so I'm being nice and posting early. Like 2.30am early! Anyway, enjoy!

Olaf didn't mention it but he seemed to be angry with me again. Guess that was his go to emotion too and while I might not like it I couldn't blame him. Bernardo seemed to sense something was wrong but not what which meant Olaf was storing this up and seething to himself. As long as he behaved tonight, let him.  
Edward had provided me with some new toys for tonight, including dull bladed knives and two tranquilliser guns plus a silencer for the Browning. We were all under orders we were to shoot to injure unless we were at risk and I wondered how far Olaf would take notice of that. I had a feeling he would just kill and damn the circumstances. What Edward wanted however was to make an example, show as many of Van Cleef's trainees as he could that the man was not infallible.  
All the techy electronic stuff had been done by the men and once we were in position we moved to radio silence. Edward had disabled whatever he needed to to enable us to get through the fence safely and undetected and our first stop would be the graveyard.  
The first guards we came across looked about twelve to me, fresh faced but far from innocent about covered it perfectly, and Edward seems to sends my reluctance, taking the first shot which made me take the second or risk being discovered. They dropped almost the second the dart hit them and I was amazed by how quickly it took effect. Edward took one of their earpieces and put it in his own ear so he could warn us if anything hit the airwaves.  
The graveyard was deserted with no guards even nearby which meant I should have an easy ride when it came to the raising. I could sense the bodies as we approached, like they reached out to me before I got there, and Edward stayed by the entry as I went on ahead. On the map it had looked small but there must have been over sixty graves here, sixty chances to screw this up, sixty possible rogue zombies out for revenge, but Edward was right. I had raised vampires and whole cemeteries before. I could do this. I rolled up my sleeve and cut my arm, walking the yard as I shook blood over every grave I could, calling a circle of power as I went to confine the dead until the time came and my skin prickled with the energy I created, the raw magic that craved to be free. I called upon all the dead hearing my voice, called upon those within the scope of my power and shoved it into the earth, drew them to me, raised them, animated them, and they came. They obeyed me and it wasn't long before I had so many sunken pairs of eyes looking to me for instruction that it was almost overwhelming. I told them to follow me, to protect Edward and I, and not to deviate from my instructions, and I rejoined Edward with my army at my back. I think if anything was going to put Van Cleef off coming after me then this would be it.  
'He will be in the quarters here.' Edward had told us when he pointed to the map, a large circular building dead centre with windows all the way around so he could see the entire training grounds at once, and I sent our new allies out and around the building to secure the perimeter. Edward picked some off but I concentrated on the dead, on making sure I could feel each and every one of them and that they weren't straying from their task.  
The door to the circular building was industrial in construction but it was amazing how much strength the dead could hold and it was ripped away along with part of the wall on either side and Edward and I were in the building as the dead fell back behind us.  
There were two guards on the stairs who were dispatched rapidly by Edward and the final two at the top by the door were thrown over the sides of the spiral staircase by two of my overzealous followers but Edward accepted my shrug as an apology.  
We stood to either side of the final entry, a large metal door that none of our guns would penetrate, but Edward clipped a device onto the keypad beside it and in just moments it slid upwards to a hail of gunfire.  
'Neutralise the threats. Keep Van Cleef alive.' I whispered and the hoard of undead surged past us. Someone screamed and there was so much chaos; yelling, gunshots and the meaty sounds of flesh and bone, and through it all Edward and I maintained eye contact from where we stood.  
As the sounds of the scuffle began to lessen Edward nodded and we stepped forward into the room. The smell of old death mixed with fresh blood and I realised some of the threats had literally been neutralised. Into several pieces. But I couldn't do anything about that now. These were supposed to be Van Cleef's elite and Edward had made the point they were expendable. I made the zombies step back so we could see what remained in the room. It was obviously Van Cleef's home office, so to speak, with a desk, living area, conference table and bed, and out of the circular window I noticed a building was on fire, perhaps part of Olaf and Bernardo's distraction, but standing by the bed, holding a large semiautomatic weapon, was the man I had to assume was Van Cleef, going by the monogram on his burgundy silk pyjamas, and I didn't doubt the only reason he was still alive was the fact he probably hadn't fired yet. He stood at least six feet tall, broad but not imposingly so and at least sixty. His no doubt once blond hair was more grey, his features rugged and worn, and he smiled warmly at us.  
'My protégé returns.' He nodded to Edward beside me before turning his slate grey eyes on me. 'And he has brought me a gift.'  
'You know that's not why we're here.' Edward said, his voice harsh.  
'Of course not. Once upon a time, maybe, but not any more. Do you mind?' He released the stock of the gun, holding it towards the table beside him, asking for permission to put it down.  
'Go ahead.' We both had weapons on him and he was surrounded by enough undead we could have a wall between us in seconds.  
'You are here because of your replacement's misconduct towards the love of your life.' He nodded a greeting at me. 'It is an honour to finally meet you, Miss Blake.'  
'I'd say likewise but honour is not the word I'd use.' I replied.  
'You have quite a talent.' He indicated towards the undead surrounding him. 'I believe we have underestimated you.'  
'Most people do.'  
He turned his attention back to Edward. Maybe we were done but I doubted it. 'You know why we approached her?'  
'I know.' Edward replied.  
'Does she?'  
'Mostly.'  
'Mostly?' I spared Edward a confused glance. What did he mean, mostly?  
'You didn't tell her everything?' Van Cleef looked surprised.  
'I told her all she needed to know. That you would use her to make me come back, if you could.'  
'And about recruiting her?'  
'Recruiting me?' My eyes went wide and I took a step away from Edward as my...minions? Yeah, let's call them that for now, as my minions shuffled nervously. 'Someone had better start talking.'  
'Van Cleef always had this idea of finding someone, my match, to pair me with, as a partner.'  
'But not just a partner in business.' Van Cleef added. 'And you, Miss Blake, have surpassed my expectations even without any training. Imagine what the two of you could accomplish, imagine what your offspring could accomplish.'  
'Whoa, offspring? What?!' I tried not to take my eyes off Van Cleef but what I really wanted to do was slap Edward up the back of his head for not mentioning this before.  
'You are brutal, Miss Blake, you proved that when you killed a man with your lover's face without pause. You would be the perfect couple, and I would reward you generously.'  
'Fuck you.' I snarled. 'I'm not signing up to some murder camp and I'm sure not signing up to make little killer babies.'  
'We would not use your womb, merely your eggs. That way you would be most productive for longer.'  
I raised the tranquilliser gun in my left hand. 'If you say one more word, I swear to God, I will kill you.' I glanced at Edward again. 'You knew about this?'  
'I knew he always liked the idea but never found someone deadly enough for me.' He didn't take his eyes or weapons off Van Cleef and he spoke so calmly we could have been discussing the weather.  
'You should have mentioned this.'  
'You had enough to worry about, and I wasn't sure.'  
'Your suspicions should have been enough!' I shook my head. Fighting with him over this wouldn't help. At least not now. I could verbalise the bastard when we didn't have an enemy in our midst. 'Fine. You did it on some stupid machismo whim that has come back to bite you in the ass. We'll talk later. But for now,' I turned back to Van Cleef, 'what do we do about him?'  
'What do you want to do?'  
'I want some sort of guarantee he'll leave us the fuck alone.'  
'Then you'd better tell him he can talk again because I bet if he does without your permission your zombies will do what you said you would.'  
He had a point. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it but I had said I would try not to kill him. 'Okay, you can talk again.'  
'Thank you.' He nodded to me. 'I will offer you both an open invitation, with no expiry date.'  
'Why am I not surprised you can't just agree to leave us be?' I said angrily. 'Fine, spit out your offer so I can tell you to shove it up your ass already.'  
His lips twitched at the corners, almost a smile. 'If at any time you would like to see what we have to offer you are welcome at any of my camps. Edward can show you around, show you what we do and what we can offer. And if you ever change your mind my door is always open.'  
I narrowed my eyes at him. 'That's your offer?'  
'That's my offer.' He nodded.  
'Okay, here's mine.' I took a step forward. 'Your invitation stays just that. You don't try and force the point, ever, and you don't come for me, or him, or anyone we consider ours; you don't threaten, you don't antagonise, you don't kidnap, you certainly don't fucking seduce. You leave this to be our decision, not that we will ever make it, no coercion, our choice, and I'll accept your invitation, stick it to my mental refrigerator with a magnet, and if I ever change my mind you'll be second to know, after him.' I crooked my head towards Edward.  
'Deal.'  
'I'm not done.' I took another step forward, one that brought me almost within his arms reach, but not quite.  
'Anita...' Edward said warningly but I ignored him.  
'If you do anything that tests my rules I will come for you and I will have you torn limb from limb so badly they won't be able to identify you from the chunks. Are we clear?'  
'You are so beautifully descriptive it would be difficult not to be.'  
'Good.' I raised the tranquilliser gun and shot him in the neck. I felt rather than saw Edward start behind me as his former teacher fell to the floor in a dead faint.  
'Jesus!'  
'Now he can't raise any more alarms.' I shrugged and turned back towards him, putting one of the tranq guns on a table and, without breaking stride, walked straight up to him and punched him in the jaw. 'No more hiding things from me, you shit!' I yelled as I shook the life back into my hand where it tingled from the blow.  
He scowled at me as he rubbed his jaw and straightened again. 'There was no point in telling you because you'd just have had more to freak out about.'  
'Because having the bad guy tell me when we're confronting him is better?' I retrieved the gun and headed towards the door. 'I know you like your secrets but if you want me to dump an ancient vampire in favour of you you need to learn to share!'  
'Can we do this off Van Cleef's security feed?' He asked as he drew level with me.  
'I thought you guys fucked that up?'  
'This building is on a separate network. No external access.'  
'More shit you didn't tell me.' I sent half the zombies down ahead of us in case we had a welcoming committee of some sort waiting and the other half would cover our backs.  
'I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Van Cleef's master plan. I just knew you wouldn't go for it so saw no point.'  
'Well, maybe it's too late for that.' I said with an exaggerated dismissive tone.  
'What do you mean?'  
'Neither you or your evil twin bothered to check if I was on birth control.'  
I heard one of his guns clatter to the floor as he grabbed my arm and turned me to him, horror in his eyes. 'What?'  
'I thought you wanted babies, according to mommy of the year?'  
'You're not on birth control?' He almost yelled.  
'No, I AM on birth control because I am a responsible grown up while you are more interested in getting yours, you dick! Why do men always worry the consequences later? Sheesh!' I shrugged off his arm and continued down the stairs. 'You have until we get back to the motel to figure out any more secrets you've been keeping from me to fess up!' And I left it like that.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, thought I would add that there are 19 parts to this, including the epilogue, so we aren't done yet!


End file.
